


plants have feelings too

by aelin6crows



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: F/M, One Shot, Pre-Relationship, Save the Citizen, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26566927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelin6crows/pseuds/aelin6crows
Summary: Layla's day has been pretty full on, first Mr Medulla's ray causes a plant explosion, then she's late for save the citizen so she's right at the back of the stands, and then she has to fight reigning champs Will and Warren, with Zach. Who, no offence to him, is slightly useless.
Relationships: Warren Peace/Layla Williams
Comments: 4
Kudos: 76





	plants have feelings too

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, this is my first completed fan fiction, which is more of a one shot. It's not the best thing ever, but I just wanted to get it posted and hopefully you all like it.  
> Disclaimer: obviously don’t own anything except the plot

Save the citizen was the last class of the day, and also one of the favourites among the students, and Layla, who had arrived late after being stuck in the science lab when Mr Medulla’s Ageifier (name pending) accidently hit a plant that then started to try to take over the class, couldn’t find a seat with her friends. Fortunately, Layla had managed to calm the plant down enough to get the rest of the class out before Mr Medulla decided to experiment on it. Apparently no one had informed him that hurting plants while she is trying to calm them hurts her, so it was a bit of a shock when she started screaming as he was taking a cutting the size of a person.

Thankfully, when he realised and stopped, she was fine and ran off to save the citizen. Where she was the last one to arrive. Now normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but ever since Will and Warren teamed up when they still hated each other, the fights have gotten more interesting. For a start, they are still undefeated, one of the longest stints since Will’s parents were at school, and for another, they don’t just pick sidekicks or kids they don’t like. They’ll pick anyone who wants a go, and by now, most of the school has gone against them.

Even Magenta and Ethan had given it a go. Which worked surprisingly well as Ethan didn’t burn and Magenta was too small in her guinea pig form to be caught by Will. The teachers had seen this new approach and realised that it actually helped the students to be better fighters, and set up a new system in which students are automatically generated. 

Layla was one of about five students that hadn’t taken part in save the citizen. Not just because she didn’t believe in using her powers for violence (she’d gotten over that when fighting against the Pennys), or because she was worried about being defeated by her ex-boyfriend and his best friend (she could hold her own, thank you very much), in fact she wasn’t really sure why she hadn’t, she just hadn’t. 

Layla walked into the sports hall and made her way to the top of the bleachers, all the lower seats being full. She caught Warren’s eye as she climbed, then swung her bag onto the seat behind her, and got out her copy of Pride and Prejudice.

Coach Boomer began his introductory speech, occasionally shaking the stands with the force of his voice, before he began to explain the new system of picking opponents. Layla sat up and listened to this, it was meant to be introduced next week but obviously they had decided to start it early. He introduced the reigning champions of save the citizen, and Warren and Will stepped forward, Will looking decidedly happier about being announced than Warren.

Coach, walked over to a small podium with what looked like a top hat on it, shoved his hand in, and pulled out a slip of paper. “The school board has decided,” Coach Boomer continued, “that because we’re trying to more inclusive and fairer to all students, for unity and other rubbish ideals, that we will be starting a new challenger selection process. Also known as, picking a name out of a hat and letting them pick a partner. Now if you’re feeling particularly wimpy, or you have a genuine medical reason why you can’t fight that day then you’ll have to suck it up… but if you are actually ill, then you need a note because we’re not legally allowed to make you do something, but not wanting to won’t cut it. Got it?”

There were scattered nods around the hall, “Good, now the first challenger is… Larry Smith!”

Larry walked forward with freeze girl- what was her name? Ah, Emily- and while she put her armour on, he transformed. Layla knew that he’d picked her because apparently they were an item now, but it also worked in terms of powers. Emily’s were an almost perfect match for Warren’s what with being opposite elements, and it didn’t hurt that they’d had broken up a couple of weeks ago after a rather explosive relationship and she was still bitter. Larry’s and Will’s powers were similar too, but Will did have the advantage because he could fly (always useful) and he was smaller but just as strong.

Coach Boomer blew his whistle and immediately Emily launched on the attack. She fired ice at Warren who only just managed to raise a fire shield in time. Larry raced for the citizen in an attempt to save it, but was immediately carried away by Will and slammed into the roof of the sports hall. Warren aimed a fireball at the rope holding the citizen, and Emily swore and raced towards it, only to watch as the citizen fell into the metal claws.

Coach Boomer announced that the villains had won, and the students cheered.

Layla leaned back against the wall of the sports hall, and watched as Will flew around the room, showing off for his classmates. This is why they didn’t work in a relationship. Excusing the fact that they had been friends for years and as soon as they went further than kissing it got weird, whenever they were sat at lunch, or standing in the corridors, Will wanted to be surrounded by people, while Layla wanted to hide away in the corner with a book and her plants. Layla and Warren had taken to eating outside to escape the constant noise, with Magenta, Zach and Ethan sometimes joining them.

A piercing shout stopped all the fangirling over Will- I mean really, he’s done this three times a day for the past three months, you would think they’d be over it by now- and Layla put down her book- she’d only managed to read a chapter because of all the noise and was slightly pissed off about that. She hit the side of her head to stop it ringing and managed to tune into the end of Coach Boomer’s ridiculously long speech, “- poor performance from our heroes, so once again, the match goes to Will Stronghold and Warren Peace. Our next challenger will be… Zach Mandala.”

Layla sighed. She loved Zach, she really did, in a puppy kind of way, but he had way too much ego for the power he had. There was no way she could see him winning because even if by some miracle he made it pitch black, Warren could create light just as easily, and he’d be a walking target.

Zach looked around the stands, searching for a potential partner. Most people had already fought against the dream team so everyone else knew how they would do against either Warren or Will. Layla knew what was coming before she even locked eyes with Zach. It made sense, she was strong, and no one apart from the Pennys really knew how she fought.

But as Zach said, “I nominate Layla Williams as my partner,” Layla knew that there would be some very intrigued people sat watching, wondering just how the bookish hippie girl managed to take down one of the best ex-heroes. And at the same time there would be just as many people wondering who the hell the girl walking down from the top of the stands smirking was.

Layla reached the floor, silently longing for her book, and maybe some tea, rather than having to fight against these two on a Thursday afternoon. Couldn’t she just have a peaceful day? Coach held the armour out towards her which she declined and, ignoring the eyebrow raised in her direction, she strolled over to Zach who had already decided they would be the heroes.

“Soooo…” Zach said with a look in her direction, “what’s our plan?”

“I don’t know,” Layla hissed, “you picked me not the other way around, and why did you pick to be the heroes, it’s harder because you have to care about that stupid citizen. Also, I was quite liking the fact that I haven’t fought against these two yet, and today was not the day I wanted to change that.”

“Chill out, flower-power, it’ll be fine, you’re badass and I glow so we can just turn the lights off and then we’re good.”

“Except that makes you into a walking target and Warren has fire. Can you blind people with your glowy-ness?”

“Maybe, that’s a good idea, you’re smart Layla, and if not, you can just fight them, and I’ll cheer you on.”

Layla opened her mouth to respond, but Coach Boomer blew his whistle and the game began. 

She had taken to carrying seeds around in her pockets for whenever she wanted to use her powers, which came in handy now. Layla saw both of her opponents watching her, as she emptied out her pockets and threw her seeds on the ground. At first, there was nothing. Then vines and trees spung out of nowhere, and Layla moved forwards while the boys were still processing. One of her vines began growing up the side of the gym and towards the citizen to strengthen its rope, and Will, seeing what she was doing, flew off and began to yank on the vine. Layla grunted at the force, but her vine didn’t give, so she turned her attention to Warren who had taken to launching fireballs at Zach who was running about.

While he was focused, she swung a vine at his back, knocking him over and then started to tie him up with the most fire-proof plants she could grow. At least this could keep him down for a little while. 

Layla turned around, and with a flick of a flower she had grown to cover the door, the lights went off. Zach started to glow, as she knew he would, and she gestured at him to start trying to ramp it up a bit, before she opened her hands and flowers that glowed floated out and circled the sports hall. Will had briefly looked up at the sudden loss of light, which gave Layla time to grow a tree beneath the metal claws and create a cradle for the citizen out of branches. 

Layla also grew a tree beneath her which twisted up until she was face to face with Will. The leaves on her tree fused with the Venus flytrap seeds she had spilled earlier and reached out to grab at Will before her vines pinned his arms and legs together and attached him to one of the roof supports.

By now, most of the gym was covered in twisting vines, branches and flowers, and much of the crowd looked about with awe written over their faces. A wrench of pain in her gut, and a flash of blood from her side had her looking over to Warren who had finally burned through her plants. Layla snook a glance at Zach who had a look of immense concentration, but held up a single finger letting her know he was nearly ready. 

Layla grew out the branch she was stood on until she was near Warren.

“Hey, Hippie, I thought you didn’t believe in using your powers for violence,” Warren smirked, and directed a line of fire towards Zach, who he had correctly deemed her weakness in this fight. She created a bubble of leaves around Zach to protect him, and winced slightly when the fire hit, causing a small gash to appear around her forearm.

“I got over that a while ago, Warren, you scared to be beaten by a girl?” Layla twirled her hands and threw them forwards, vines carrying slightly poisonous flowers following her movements now. Warren burned the ones he saw, again noticing the small cuts dotted over Layla’s person.

He smiled, almost in victory, before he noticed Layla’s attention behind him, and then he dropped to the ground in pain from a small needle-like thorn on one of the vines that had grown down from the ceiling.

Layla let out a small scream and turned, her eyes glowing green in the dark, as she saw Will had burst out of her vine-trap. She launched flowers and trees and vines shaped like hammers and swords at him, but he punched them away. Layla shouted, “anytime now, Zach,” over her shoulder, and after a few seconds received, “I’m ready.”

Layla managed to get a shot in at Will and then set about recalling most of her plants that weren’t currently being used to fight Will or contain Warren. When there were minimal plant casualties and she had grown a partial wall between the students and them, she recovered Zach’s protection bubble and nodded at him.

She squeezed her eyes shut, saw a flash of white and heard a whistle pronouncing her and Zach the winners before she passed out from the pain her plants were feeling.

\----------

When she came around, it was to Warren sat at her bedside with Zach and Will stood near the door. They all looked at each other for a moment before Warren broke the silence.

“Well, I’ll give you that, Hippie, you know how to fight, when the hell did you learn to do that?”

“I sort of just made it up as I went along?” Layla ducked her head at the three exasperated looks shot her way, “when I was younger, I used to get vines to help me climb trees and I have been watching you two fight for three months so I know how you work, and none of you have seen me fight before so I was unpredictable.”

Will looked down at her, almost like a disapproving father, “now would you like to tell us why, exactly, you are covered in cuts and bruises when no one actually laid a hand on you?”

“Umm, not really?” At Will’s face, but mainly Warren’s, that promised pain if she didn’t answer, sometimes you could really see how people thought he was like his father, but then Layla would see his sad puppy eyes when he wanted something- not the time, Layla. “Okay, so when I’m, for lack of a better word, connected to any plant, I sort of share my life force with them. Which means that if I’m hurt I get injured less then I would normally, which has saved me a lot of broken arms and legs falling out of trees, let me tell you. But, it also means if a plant is hurt, or torn or burned, I get part of the injury too so the plant can recover and carry on living.”

“That makes sense, and we would have been less violent if we knew that,” Will said, “but that doesn’t explain why you passed out at the end.”

“Of course it does, you idiot,” Warren said, standing up and avoiding Layla’s eyes, “Zach’s little star show is essentially a lot of light waves, and plants like light, but not that much. So, to stop everyone watching from being blind until the nurse got around to them, Layla grew some plants, and then because she’s such a bleeding heart, she absorbed the majority of the pain into her, so her plants were fine.”

Zach stuttered out an apology which Layla waved off before scurrying out, while Will stayed silent in the corner, until after nodding once at Warren and leaving. 

Layla sat up, wincing slightly, which caused Warren to hurry over and readjust her pillows. When he made to move away again, she shifted over and pulled him down beside her. “Are you okay, Warren?”

“You’re asking me?” he scoffed, and shook his head, “hell, Layla, I did this to you, and I didn’t even put two and two together to realise why you were hurting.”

“Warren don’t be ridiculous, this is not your fault, this is mine for going so far on the offensive I guess I just wanted to win. But look at me,” Layla lifted his chin to see his eyes, so dark and filled with emotion, “this is not your fault, and you are not your father.”

“I never-”

“You didn’t have to.”

Warren suddenly surged forwards and pressed his lips against Layla’s, who, shocked at his actions, gasped. He took advantage, exploring her mouth and twining their tongues together like the vines she wove. Layla’s head felt like it was bursting, her hands clutching his shoulders and his heating her back.

When they broke apart Layla noticed the flowers decorating the room, and Warren, once again taking advantage of her surprise, strolled out of the room, only stopping to shout, “the lantern, 8 o’clock, Friday.”

“Ask me out like a man,” Layla responded, and then blushed as the nurse came in with a smile on her face.

Warren’s laughter drifted down the hall to her, and Layla had to ask the nurse to repeat her questions five times before she could actually answer.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to leave any suggestions for how I could improve or anything else you wanna say below.


End file.
